Indianapolis Star
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — A judge agreed to move the trial earlier this year, citing heavy media coverage of the shooting of officer Jason Fishburn and Fishburn’s involvement in a campaign supporting a ballot measure to replace Wishard Memorial Hospital.
Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said he takes the case personally and will participate each day of the trial, which is expected to last at least a full week. He is accompanying deputy prosecutors Denise Robinson and Mark Hollingsworth.
“At the end of the day,” Brizzi told reporters during a briefing today, “when we’re talking about the men and women who put their lives on the line for this community . . . I believe the elected prosecutor should be involved.”
During a foot chase of Reese, then a homicide suspect, on the Eastside in July 2008, Fishburn was shot in the head and a protective vest. Now 30, he is back working full time in an administrative capacity for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, Brizzi said.
Fishburn doesn’t remember anything about the day of the shooting, but Brizzi, who met with Fishburn on Monday, still plans to call him to the stand, if only to put a face on the crime for the jury.
“I don’t want to subject him to anything too uncomfortable,” Brizzi said.
Copyright 2009 Indianapolis Star